190 years Tyrian shekels Monetary

Tyrian shekels 狄纳里（denarius） 舍克勒sheke和狄纳里的比值为1：2.5 一舍客勒（2比加） didrachm:A two-drachma piece; an ancient Greek silver coin, worth nearly 40 cents. A drachma was aproximately a day's pay for a skilled laborer. So the 30 pieces of silver - at 4 drachmas each - would roughly be comparable to 4 months' wages for skilled labor at the time. 非技术人员的日工资为1狄纳利。 所谓非技术人员就是今天干体力活的雇工。 那么一个雇工一个月的工资应该是三十狄纳里。 丁稅（二錢銀子）didrachmon=2 drachme 希臘銀幣（新約時代不再使用）一塊錢stater=4 drachme ------------------------------------------------ A rare half shekel coin, first minted in 66 or 67 C.E., was discovered by 14 year-old Omri Ya'ari as volunteers sifted through mounds of dirt from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The coin is the first one found to originate from the Temple Mount. ------------------------------------------------ The half shekel coin was first minted during the Great Revolt against the Romans. The face of the coin is decorated with a branch of three pomegranates and ancient Hebrew letters reading "holy Jerusalem." On the flip side, the letters say "half shekel". The coin that was found in the sifting project, though it was well preserved, showed some damage from a fire. Experts believe it was the same fire that destroyed the Second Temple in 70 C.E. Dr. Gabriel Barkay explained that "the half shekel coin was used to pay the temple taxes... The coins were apparently minted at Temple Mount itself by the Temple authorities." The half shekel tax is mentioned in the book of Exodus (Portion Ki Tisa), commanding every Jew to contribute half a shekel to the Temple every year for the purpose of purchasing public sacrifices. Dr. Barkay added that "this is the first time a coin minted at the Temple Mount itself has been found, and there in lies its immense importance, because similar coins have been found in the past in the Jerusalem area and in the Old City's Jewish quarter, as well as Masada, but they are extremely rare in Jerusalem." So far, some 3,500 ancient coins have been discovered in the Temple Mount dirt sifting, ranging from earliest minting of coins during the Persian era all the way up to the Ottoman era. An additional important archaeological discovery in the sifting project was another well preserved coin, minted between 175 and 163 B.C.E. by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, against whom the Hasmoneans revolted. This revolt brought about the re-dedication of the Temple after Antiochus seized the Temple's treasures and conducted idol worship in it. The coin depicts a portrait of Antiochus the Seleucid King. ------------------------------------------------ In Zechariah 11:12-13, 30 pieces of silver is the price Zechariah receives for his labour. He takes the coins and throws them "to the potter". Klaas Schilder notes that Zechariah's payment indicates an assessment of his worth, as well as his dismissal. In Exodus 21:32, 30 pieces of silver was the price of a slave, so while Zechariah calls the amount a "handsome price" (Zechariah 11:13), this could be sarcasm. Webb, however, regards it as a "considerable sum of money." -------------------------- The Tyrian shekels held a prominant position among the best known coins of the ancient world. From 126/5 B.C.to A.D. 70 they circulated extensively in the Middle East, mainly in the regions of Phoenicia, Galilee, Judea, Syria and Transjordan. The fineness of the Tyrian shekels is very high, generally 92% silver or better for the entire series, including the last issues E. Schurer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesu (175 B.C. - A.D. 135) Two characteristics stand out in regard to the various shekels. The first of these is the change in their style. The earlier shekels are of good style and are struck with dies smaller than the flans, thus permitting the entire design and inscription to be included on the coins. The die cutters of these early issues did a highly artistic and professional job. The later shekels, struck during the second half of their period of issue, are not so well styled, and were struck on smaller flans; on most, the inscription or design is never complete and parts are entirely off the flan. Some shekels of the second group are quite crude, and are sometimes considered to be barbaric in style. The two Greek letters KP which appear on both series have never been explained before. They remain enigmatic, but some ideas about their meaning may now be proposed, particularly as they appear on the first issues (struck in 18 B.C.) in monogram form, XX, where the letter A is also visible. It is possible that word KAPTEPOXX, meaning strong, potent, fixed, all referring to the value of the coin, may be implied by this monogram; it may also mean KAPTOXX (or KPATOXX), referring to the power of the regime. According to the use of the KP monogram, the Tyrian shekels and fractions can be divided into two different groups. The first consists of coins struck in the years 126-19 B.C. that do not have the letters KP. The second group comprises issues struck from 18 B.C.-66 A.D. that bear the letters KP, or these letters in monogram form. --------------------------- the Temple in Jerusalem and its religious rules and restrictions had their own impact on the financial markets of the time. During the hellenistic period, Jewish law, the Mishna, began to crystallize. From the 2nd century B.C. onwards many religious laws were put into practice. One of the most important of these was the requirement that from the age of {twenty} onwards, every male had to pay the Temple an annual tribute of half a shekel. In the Mishna, a special tractate, "Sheqalim," deals with this mandatory tribute. The money was collected to cover the expenses of Temple rituals and maintenance. As a result of this law, which applied to one-third of the entire Jewish population of the ancient world, Temple income was enormous, amounting to a constant income of perhaps half a million shekels annually. ------------------------ From the reign of Augustus onwards, Roman provincial currency increasingly replaced royal hellenistic and autonomous issues then circulating in the eastern provinces of the Empire. The production of autonomous shekels was discontinued at Tyre, but was picked up and continued at Jerusalem in order to meet the requirements for pure silver currency stipulated by Jewish religious law. The Tyrian shekels struck in Jerusalem can be identified by the monogram KP, by the small shape and size of their flans, and by their often crude style, although they maintain the same weight and fineness as the earlier series. The production of Tyrian silver ended with the issues of A.D. 65/6 - a date which has no known significance in the history of Tyre, but which coincides exactly with the outbreak of the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66. With the establishment of full control over Jerusalem, the Jewish authorities changed the coin type entirely to one linked to their own specific iconography and political needs, and began the issuance of a new, exclusively Jewish, silver coinage. After this article went to press, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem was given a coin, accquired in Beth Lehem, which has some connection to the "Jerusalemite" Tyrian shekels. The coin is a didrachm of Antiochus VII struck at Tyre; it is quite similar to the Tyrian shekel and is actually its prototype: the eagle is the same, the head of the Seleucid king was replaced by the head of Heracles; the inscription is essentially the main innovation. This didrachm has a rectangular countermark on its obverse depicting the letters PlH to represent the date: year 118 of the Tyrian era = 9 B.C. We believe that the Temple authorities approved the use of this Seleucid didrachm as if it were a Tyrian shekel by affixing this countermark. There is no doubt that issuing money as well as controlling the financial market by approving or rejecting certain coins as official Temple currency was to the Temple's advantage and constituted a major factor in its economic prosperity - a fact which raised no little criticism from the populace. The criticism of the "bankers" of the Temple during the life of Jesu is a reflection of this situation. --------------- For annually, on the 1st of Adar while (the month before the Passover), proclamation was made throughout the country by messengers sent from Jerusalem of the approaching Temple tribute. On the 15th of Adar the money-changers opened stalls throughout the country to change the various coins, which Jewish residents at home or settlers abroad might bring, into the ancient money of Israel. For custom had it that nothing but the regular half-shekel of the sanctuary could be received at the treasury. On the 25th of Adar business was only transacted within the precincts of Jerusalem and of the Temple, and after that date those who had refused to pay the impost could be proceeded against at law, and their goods distrained, 2 the only exception being in favour of priests, and that 'for the sake of peace … ----- Roman coins had to have these coins changed by the moneychangers. -------------------------------------------------------------------